Pressure gauges enjoy very extensive commercial and industrial use, and are consequently regarded as high production items. Because of such wide use, they are supplied by a plurality of manufacturers and sold in very price conscious competition. Each manufacturer instinctively strives to reduce product costs by improvements, however marginal, which reduce labor and/or materials that can contribute to cost savings in the end product.
Disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,168,631 and 4,240,298 is a pressure gauge in which the mechanical movement for driving the pointer from displacement motion of the Bourdon tube is supported via a U-shaped bracket secured to the gauge mechanism, generally comprising the free end of the Bourdon tube. While this arrangement in the finished product has performed satisfactorily, it has encountered manufacturing problems posed by the difficulties which it presents in obstructing welding electrode accessibility for attaching the bracket to the tip of the Bourdon tube. Incident thereto, by virtue of the electrode interference it presents, has been an inability in the course of production to preassemble the movement onto the bracket prior to welding. While seemingly minor, this prior bracket structure has therefore resulted in unnecessary expense in the production manufacture of such gauges, and despite recognition of the problem, a solution therefor has not heretofore been known.